500 more low carb recipes 500 all new recipes from around the world by dana carpender

500 more low carb recipes 500 all new recipes from around the world by dana carpender (z lib org) 500 more low carb recipes 500 all new recipes from around the world by dana carpender (z lib org) 500 more low carb recipes 500 all new recipes from around the world by dana carpender (z lib org)

500 More Low-Carb Recipes

500 More Low-Carb Recipes

Dana Carpender

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I lie- ' •• , "

Text © 2004 by Dana Carpender

First published in the USA in 2004 by

Fair Winds Press

33 Commercial Street

Gloucester, MA 01930

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized, in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher

08 07 06 05 04 I 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Cover design by Mary Ann Smith

Book design by Leslie Haimes

Printed and bound in Canada

This book is dedicated to all of the people who contributed to

it-the folks who sent recipes, and it-the folks who diligently tested those recipes and gave me vital feedback As you page through this book, you'll see a whole lot of names - this book is dedicated to every single one of them

It is only through their hard work, creativity, and generosity that this work was possible - and it is because of that same hard work, creativity, and generosity that this book is far more interesting, diverse, and complex than I ever could have made it myself These folks are the heart and soul of the growing low-carb community, and I'm proud and

grateful to be among them

And, once again, to my husband Eric Schmitz, who worked fourteen-hour days right alongside me, getting this book done on time When I say I

couldn't have done it without him, it's just the simple truth

c o n t e n t s

19 Chapter 1 Ingredients You Need To Know About

41 Chapter 2 Snacks, Party Nibbles, and Other Incidental Food

77 Chapter 3 Eggs, Cheese, and the Like

105 Chapter 4 Breads, Muffins, Cereals, Crackers, and Other Grainy Things

135 Chapter 5 Hot Vegetables and Other Sides

185 Chapter 6 Side Salads and Dressings

217 Chapter 7 Chicken and Turkey

261 Chapter 8 Fish and Seafood

291 Chapter 9 Beef

343 Chapter 10 Pork and Lamb

379 Chapter 11 Main Dish Salads

403 Chapter 12: Soups

439 Chapter 13: Sauces , Seasonings, and Other Incidental Stuff

453 Chapter 14: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, and Other Sweets

527 Chapter 15: The BONUS CHAPTER!

541 Appendix A A Refresher on Measurements

543 Appendix B Whe r e to Find a Few Less-Common Ingredients

7

Introduction

Some of this Introduction will seem familiar to those of you who have my previous cookbooks! However, you still might want to read it-I've updated quite

a few things

How Do I Get Into These Things?!

After putting together 500 Low-Carb Recipes on a killer-tight schedule during the winter of 2001-2002, I swore I was never writing a book that big in that little time again

Hah Just try writing a best seller Just try! Your readers and your publisher will never let you sleep again I had no idea that 500 Low-Carb Recipes would do

as well as it did, but it turned out to be the most popular low-carb cookbook of

2003 (and thank you all very much!) Next thing I knew I was appearing on national talk shows (Hey! I met Wayne Brady!), taping for the Food Network, and finding the bookstore buyers, the readers, and my publisher all clamoring for a sequel as soon as possible!

I started in October of 2003-only to have my hard drive crash and eat all my work in mid-December ("Back up early and often" is the moral of that story.) So I started again, and had just over five months to come up with 500 recipes! YIKES! All of which is by way of explaining why this book is even more of a collaborative effort than the first one: There was simply no way I was going to come up with enough recipes by my deadline without considerable help So I put out the call to the readers of Lowcarbezine!, my Internet newsletter, telling them that I needed recipes, and plenty of them!

The response was overwhelming, as you will appreciate as you page through this book-fully half the recipes come from Lowcarbezine! readers Bless them, one and all, for their generosity in sharing their best recipes with me, and through

me, with the whole low-carb community

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Not only did my Lowcarbezine! readers send recipes, but they sent a lot of

real-ly great recipes Indeed, as they flooded into my inbox, over and over, I had the thought, "Geez, how am I going to come up with anything better than these?" I'm humbled by the talent of my readership, some of whom could teach me a thing or two about cooking If you find this book varied, interesting, useful, and fun, a great deal of the credit goes to the people whose names you will find all through this book Thank them in your heart, they deserve it

However

My readers, for the most part, don't write cookbooks for a living Often their recipes came in with wording such as "1 package frozen spinach" or "1 can green chilies" instead of exact measurements We've generally gone with the most com-mon-sized packaging, or what made instinctive sense to my cook's brain And some recipes came with no quantities given-in these cases we relied heavily on our testers' feedback

Ditto with the instructions; often they simply said "Cook"-without ing skillet or saucepan, high heat or low And more than half the recipes came in with no suggestion as to how many servings they made Again, we went with testers' feedback, and my experience

specify-Some recipes came in with specific products recommended; whenever ble we went with a generic recommendation, but where a specific product seemed like it would really make a difference, we kept it And there are certain ingredients

possi-we simply won't use around here, among them hydrogenated shortening and the very well known fake whipped topping that comes in a tub We've substituted more wholesome ingredients in those cases

Too, I reworded recipes for clarity wherever I felt it was needed, though I think you'll be able to hear a lot of my readers' voices coming through, as well

For any errors made in this process, any recipes that have undergone a sea change, and anything that just seems to the original creator like it's just not the same recipe anymore, I take full responsibility, and apologize

decide that, iflow carb is good, no carb must be better, make me want to beat my head against a wall When people do this, it's almost invariably because they fig-ure if they eat this way, they'll lose their weight fast-fast-fast Why do they want to lose their weight fast-fast-fast? Because they're looking forward to the day that they can go off the diet I confidently predict that that day is the day they start to gain their weight back, along with their insulin-related health problems

Please, get it through your head: There is no finish line Whatever you do to lose weight is what you must continue to do for the rest of your life to keep it off Whatever you do to improve your health you must continue to do forever if you want to keep your new found energy, reduced blood pressure, stable blood sugar, and improved cholesterol and triglyceride numbers

So stop trying to lose weight at a ridiculous rate (I've actually had people write

to me about how discouraging it is that they're losing "only" two pounds per week Heck, at that rate, you'd lose 104 pounds in a year! Two pounds a week is quick weight loss.) Instead, focus on making your low-carbohydrate lifestyle just as enjoyable as it can possibly be-which is darned enjoyable! Try new dishes; budget money for low-carb extravagances like expensive cheeses or macadamia nuts Get comfortable here, because this is the rest of your life

That being said, carb tolerance varies widely Only you can know, through trial and error, how much carbohydrate you can eat in a day and still lose weight, and whether you also need to keep an eye on your calorie count (By way of example,

I need to eat no more than 50 grams per day of usable carb, and no more than 2,000 calories per day, or I start to gain If I stay below 30 or 40 grams, and 1,800 calories, I lose slowly.) Further, you may have allergies, sensitivities, or religious dietary restrictions this book is not meant to deal with It is up to you to pick and choose among the recipes in this book, with an eye to the carbohydrate counts provided, your own tastes, and any other limiting factors, and put together menus that will please your palate and your family, while staying within that critical carb level

However, I do have this to say: Always, always, always the heart and soul of your low-carbohydrate diet should be meat, fish, poultry, and eggs; healthy fats; and low-carb vegetables You will find a boggling array of ways to combine these things in this book-use them! Don't just find one or two recipes that you like and make them over and over Try at least one new recipe every week, so that within a few months you'll have a whole new repertoire of familiar low-carb favorites!

You will find recipes in this book for what are best considered low-carb or reduced-carb treats Do not take the presence of a recipe in this book to mean that

it is something that you can eat every day, in unlimited quantity, and still lose weight I can tell you from experience that even low-carb treats, if eaten frequent-

ly, will put weight on you Recipes for breads, cookies, muffins, cakes, and the like

11

are here to give you a satisfying, varied cuisine that you can live with for life-not

to become the new staples of your diet Do not try to make your low-carbohydrate diet resemble your former standard American diet That's the diet that got you in trou-ble in the first place, remember?

One other thought: it is entirely possible to have a bad reaction to a food that has nothing to do with its carbohydrate count Gluten, a protein from wheat that

is essential for baking low-carb bread, causes bad reactions in a fair number of people Soy products are problematic for many folks, as are nuts Whey protein, used extensively in these recipes, contains lactose, which some people cannot tol-erate Surely you've heard of people who react badly to artificial sweeteners of one kind or another And I've heard from diabetics who get bad blood-sugar spikes from eating even small quantities of onions or tomatoes

Yet all of these foods are just fine for many, many low-carb dieters, and there

is no way I can know which foods may cause a problem for which people All I can tell you is to pay attention to your body! If you add a new food to your diet, and you gain weight (and you're pretty certain it's not tied to something else, like your menstrual cycle or a new medication), or find yourself unreasonably hungry,

or tired, or whatever, despite having stayed within your body's carbohydrate ance, you may want to consider avoiding that food One man's meat is another man's poison, and all that

toler-"Usable Carb Count"

You mayor may not be aware of the concept of the usable carb count, sometimes called the effective carb count-some low-carb books utilize this principle, some

do not If you're not familiar with the concept, here it is in a nutshell:

Fiber is a carbohydrate, and is-at least in American nutritional downs-included in the total carbohydrate count However, fiber is a form of carbohydrate made of molecules so big that you can neither digest nor absorb them Therefore, fiber, despite being a carbohydrate, will not push up your blood sugar, and it will not cause an insulin release Even better, by slowing the absorp-

break-count for these recipes However, you will also find the breakdown: total carb count and fiber count both

As I explain later on in this introduction, the food processors have cally expanded the concept of the effective carb count, which they tend to call "net carbs" or "impact carbs." I am unconvinced that this is a good idea, as I'll explain

dramati-What's a "Serving"?

I've gotten a couple of queries from folks who bought 500 Low-Carb Recipes,

want-ing to know how big a servwant-ing size is, so I thought I'd better address the matter

To be quite honest, folks, there's no great technical determination going on here For the most part, a "serving" is based on what I think would make a rea-sonable portion, depending on the carbohydrate count, how rich the dish is, and, for main dishes, on the protein count You just divide the dish up into however many portions the recipe says, and you can figure the carb counts on the recipes are accurate In some cases I've given you a range-"3-4 servings" or whatever

In those cases, I've told you how many servings the carb counts are based on, and you can do a little quick mental estimating if, say, you're serving four people when I've given the count for three

Of course, this "serving" thing is flukey People are different sizes, with ferent appetites For all I know you have three children under five, who might rea-sonably split one adult-sized portion On the other hand, you might have one sev-enteen-year-old boy who's shot up from five foot five to six foot three in the past year, and what looks like four servings to me will be a quick snack for him You'll just have to eyeball what fraction of the whole dish you're eating, and go from there

dif-I've had a few people tell me they'd rather have specific serving sizes-like "1

cup" or the like I see a few problems with this First of all, it sure won't work with things like steak or chops-I'd have to use weights instead, and then all my read-ers would have to run out and buy scales Second, my recipes generally call for things like, "1 head cauliflower" or "2 stalks celery." These things vary in size a bit, and as a result, yield will fluctuate a bit, too Also, if one of my recipes calls for" 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts" and your package is labeled

"1.65 pounds," I don't expect you to whack off that final 0.15 of a pound to get the portions exact

In short, I hate to have to weigh and measure everything, and I'm betting that

a majority of my readers feel the same way, even if some do not

So I apologize to those who like exact measures, but this is how it's gonna be, for now, at any rate

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How Are the Carbohydrate Counts in These

Recipes Calculated?

The carbohydrate counts have been calculated using MasterCook software, a very useful program that allows you to enter the ingredients of a recipe and the num-ber of servings it makes, and then spits out the nutritional breakdown for each serving MasterCook has wonderful flexibility, in that the program allows me to enter low-carb specialty ingredients like vanilla whey protein powder or Splenda into the database

The carb counts for these recipes are as accurate as we can make them However, they are not, and cannot be, 100 percent accurate MasterCook gets its nutritional information from the USDA Nutrient Database, and my experience is that the USDA's figures for carbohydrate content tend to run a bit higher than the food count books This means that the carbohydrate counts in this book are, if anything, a tad high-which beats being too low!

Furthermore, every stalk of celery, every onion, every head of broccoli is going

to have a slightly different level of carbohydrate in it, because it grew in a specific patch of soil, in specific weather, with a particular kind of fertilizer You may use

a different brand of vanilla whey protein powder than I do You may be a little more or a little less generous with how many bits of chopped green pepper you fit into a measuring cup

Don't sweat it These counts are, as the old joke goes, near enough for ernment work You can count on them as a guide to the carbohydrate content in your diet And do you really want to get obsessed with getting every '/10 of a gram written down?

gov-In this spirit, you'll find that many of these recipes call for" 1 large rib of celery," "half a green pepper," "a clove of garlic." This is how most of us cook, after all These things do not come in standardized sizes; they're analyzed for the aver-age Don't sweat it! If you're really worried, use what seems to you a smallish stalk

of celery, or green pepper, or clove of garlic, and you can count on your tive carb count being a hair lower than what is listed in the recipe

cumula-thing On the other hand, most of these specialty products are highly processed foods and do not equal genuine foodstuffs in nutritional value I fear that too many people are eating these things as staples of their diet, displacing the real foods that should be the bedrock of any healthy low-carb diet

Worse, the food processors, in order to come up with the lowest possible "net carb" or "impact carb" number, have dramatically expanded the concept Originally, the effective carb count was simply the total carb count minus the grams of fiber Then the food merchants decided for us that we could completely discount polyol sweeteners (aka sugar alcohols-maltitol, lactitol, sorbitol, xylitol, isomalt, erythritol, etc.) because they are only partially and slowly absorbed Now they've decided that any carbohydrate with a low glycemic index-that is, a low blood-sugar impact-doesn't "count."

I consider all of this to be hopelessly optimistic There's no doubt that low glycemic index carbs are easier on your body than high glycemic index carbs are, but they're still carbs, and they're still absorbed I know from experience that adding even quite low-impact carbs back to my diet in any frequent quantity-like, say, a slice or two per day of 100 percent whole-grain rye bread-will make me gain weight If the same holds true for you, eating low-carb specialty stuff loaded with polyols, inulin, low glycemic cornstarch, and the like, with any frequency, may very well torpedo your diet Worse, because the food processors so kindly subtract those carbs out for you, it may be difficult for you to keep track of how many grams of those "negligible" low-impact carbs you're getting

But what concerns me most is that many of the low-carb specialty products on the market are highly processed foods, with lots of additives and objectionable ingredients Entenmann's bakery has started putting out a line of

"low carb" cookies, coffee cakes, and the like Invariably, the predominant dient is polyol sweetener, and they contain both refined white flour and hydro-genated oils, worse than which it is difficult to get These products may have a somewhat less disastrous effect on your body, but they are still a nutrition-free zone, and they are not, are not, are not good for you

ingre-(I should mention here, however, that there are some low-carb products out there that really are minimally processed, with few or no additives I buy a great granola like product called Flax 'n' Nut Crunchies that pretty much consists of nuts and seeds, with a little Splenda and flavoring added Good stuff, and it sure jazzes

up a bowl of yogurt If you find a product you like that's not full of refined and processed junk, enjoy.)

This proliferation of low-carb junk concerns me especially because it is unclear how much of the health benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet, historically speaking, have been due solely to reduced carbohydrate intake and insulin con-trol-which are, no doubt, powerful factors-and how much has been due to the

1S

fact that, until recently, a low-carbohydrate diet forced you to eat real, unprocessed foods, with few additives, no hydrogenated oils, and with all the vitamins and minerals intact

In other words, if we've decided we can eat all the low-impact carbs we

want-a very iffy proposwant-al right there-we should be ewant-ating them primwant-arily want-as fruit want-and whole grains, not brownies, chips, and coffee cakes

Low-carb specialty foods also tend to be very expensive I'd hate for you to start basing your diet on specialty products, and then decide that a low-carb diet is too expensive and go back to eating junk So use these products wisely-to add a lit-tle variety, as an occasional treat, and to fight off cravings, not as staples of your diet But remember: forever and for always, the heart and soul of your low-carb diet should be meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and other minimally processed dairy products, vegetables, low-sugar fruits, nuts and seeds, and healthy, unprocessed fats Low-carb junk is still junk, and a bag of low-carb chips and a low-carb brownie are never a substitute for a big salad and a steak or a piece of chicken Neither, for that matter, is a protein bar Eat real food, would you?

Where to Find Low-Carbohydrate

Specialty Products

Availability oflow-carbohydrate specialty products varies a very great deal Health food stores are a good place to start looking, but while some will carry these prod-ucts, others still are caught up in low-fat, whole-grain mania, and shun them Some carry things like fiber crackers and protein powder but refuse to carry any-thing artificially sweetened, because they pride themselves on carrying only "nat-ural" products Still, you'll want a good health food store as a source of many ingredients in this book, especially those for low-carb baking, so you may as well

go poke around any health food stores in your area and see what you can find

Little specialty groceries often carry low-carbohydrate products as a way to attract new repeat business In my town, Sahara Mart, a store that has long spe-cialized in Middle Eastern foods, has become the best source for low-carb spe-

can call; others have the ability to take checks online as well as credit cards A few companies I've done business with happily are Carb Smart, Low Carb Grocery, and Synergy Diet, but there are tons of them out there Go look!

On the Importance of Reading Labels

Do yourself a favor, and get in the habit of reading the label on every food uct, and I do mean every food product, that has one I have learned from long, hard, repetitive experience that food processors can, will, and do put sugar, corn syrup, corn starch, and other nutritionally empty, carb-y garbage into every con-ceivable food product I have found sugar in everything from salsa to canned clams, for heaven's sake! (Who it was who thought that the clams needed sugar-ing, I'd love to know.) You will shave untold thousands of grams of carbohydrate off your intake in the course of the year by the simple expedient oflooking for the product that has no added junk

prod-There are also a good many classes of food products out there to which sugar

is virtually always added-the cured meats come to mind There is almost always sugar in sausage, ham, bacon, hot dogs, liverwurst, and the like You will look in vain for sugarless varieties of these products-one good reason why you should pri-marily eat fresh meats instead, by the way However, you will find that there is quite

a range of carb counts among cured meats, because some manufacturers add more sugar than others I have seen ham that has I gram of carbohydrate per serving, and I have seen ham that has 6 grams of carbohydrate per serving-that's a 600 percent difference! Likewise, I've seen hot dogs that have a gram of carbohydrate apiece, and I've seen hot dogs that have 5 grams of carbohydrate apiece

If you're in a position where you can't read the labels-for instance, at the deli counter at the grocery store-ask questions The nice deli folks will be glad to read the labels on the ham and salami for you, and can tell you what goes into the var-ious items they make themselves You'll want to ask, too, at the meat counter, if you're buying something they've mixed up themselves-Italian sausage or mari-nated meats, or whatever I have found that if I state simply that I have a medical condition that requires that I be very careful about my diet-and don't come at the busiest hour of the week!-folks are generally very nice about this sort of thing

This advice to always read labels holds doubly true when you're buying ucts labeled "low carb." The amount of sheer junk flooding onto the market that says it has only, say, 2 net carbs, when it's really loaded with polyols, corn starch, inulin, and other carbohydrates, is alarming And remember, reduced-carb refined, processed junk is still refined, processed junk

prod-In short, become a food sleuth After all, you're paying your hard-earned money for this stuff, and it is quite literally going to become a part of you Pay at least as much attention as you would if you were buying a car or a computer!

17

U sing This Book

I can't really tell you how to plan your menus I don't know if you live alone or have a family, if you have hours to cook or are pressed for time every evening, or what foods are your favorites I can, however, give you a few suggestions

~ You'll find a lot of one-dish meals in this book-main dish salads, skillet suppers that include meat and vegetables both, hearty soups that are a full meal in a bowl I include these because they're some of my favorite foods, and to my mind, about the simplest way to eat I also think they lend a far greater variety

to low-carb cuisine than is possible if you're trying to divide up your drate allowance for a given meal among three or four different dishes If you have a carb-eating family, you can appease them by serving something on the side-whole-wheat pitas split in half and toasted with garlic butter, brown rice,

carbohy-a bcarbohy-aked potcarbohy-ato, or some noodles (You ccarbohy-an't imcarbohy-agine I'll recommend thcarbohy-at you serve them something like canned biscuits, Tater Tots, or Minute Rice, can you?)

~ However, when you're serving these one-dish meals, remember that most of your carbohydrate allowance for the meal is included in that main dish Unless you can tolerate more carbohydrate than I can, you probably don't want to serve

a dish with lots of vegetables in it with even more vegetables on the side Remember, it's the total usable carb count you have to keep an eye on

~ Simple meat dishes-roasted chicken, broiled steak, pan-broiled chops and the like-are the dishes you'll want to complement with the more carbohydrate-rich vegetable side dishes

~ Break out of your old ways of looking at food! There's no law on the books insisting that you eat eggs only for breakfast, have tuna salad for lunch every day, and some sort of meat and two side dishes for dinner Both time and money are short? Serve eggs for dinner a couple of nights a week-they're fast, cheap, and unbelievably nutritious Having family video night or game night? Skip dinner and make two or three healthy snack foods to nibble on Can't face another fried egg at breakfast? Throw a chop or a hamburger in the electric

c h a p t e r o n e

Ingredients You

Need To Know About

This is by no means an exhaustive rundown of every single ingredient used in this book, just the ones I thought you might have questions about I've grouped them

by use; within those groupings they're in alphabetical order

Most beans and other legumes are too high in carbohydrate for many low-carb dieters, but there is one exception: Black soy beans have a very low usable carb count, about I gram per serving, because most of the carb in them is fiber Several recipes in this book call for Eden brand canned black soy beans Many health food stores carry these; if yours doesn't, I'll bet they could special-order them for you Health food stores tend to be wonderful about special orders

If you can't find canned black soy beans, you may be able to find them dry and uncooked; if so, you'll have to soak them and then cook them for a looooong time until they soften-soy beans can be stubborn I'd recommend using your slow cooker

I would also recommend not eating soy bean recipes several times a week I know that soy has a reputation for being the Wonder Health Food of All Existence, but there are reasons to be cautious Soy has been known for decades now to be hard on the thyroid, and if you're trying to lose weight and improve your health, a slow thyroid is the last thing you need More alarmingly, there was a study done in Hawaii in 2000 that showed a correlation between the amount of tofu subjects ate

in middle age and their rate and severity of cognitive problems in old age Since entists suspect the problem lies with the soy estrogens that have been so highly touted, any unfermented soy product, including our canned soy beans, is suspect

sci-This doesn't mean we should completely shun soy beans and soy products, but it does mean we need to approach them with caution, and eat them in

19

moderation Since many low-carb specialty products are soy-heavy, you'll want to pay attention there, too

Personally, I try to keep my soy consumption to 1 serving a week or less

Eggs

There are a few recipes in this book that call for raw eggs, an ingredient that is currently frowned upon by officialdom because of the risk of salmonella However, I have it on pretty good authority that only lout of every 16,000

un cracked, properly refrigerated eggs is actually contaminated As one woman with degrees in public health and food science put it, "The risk is less than the risk

of breaking your leg on any given trip down the stairs." So I use raw eggs now and again, and don't worry about it, and we've never had a problem around here

However, this does not mean that there is no risk You'll have to decide for yourself if this is a worry for you-among other things, I generally use very, very fresh eggs from local small farmers, which may well be safer than eggs that have gone longer distances, with more risk of cracking or of refrigeration problems

One useful thing to know about eggs: While you'll want very fresh eggs for frying and poaching, eggs that are at least several days old are better for hard-boiling They're less likely to stick to their shells in that maddening way we've all encountered So if you like hard-boiled eggs-they're certainly one of the most convenient low-carb foods-buy a couple of extra cartons of eggs and let them sit

in the refrigerator for at least three or four days before you hard-boil them

Fats and Oils

Bland Oils

Sometimes you want a bland oil in a recipe-something that adds little or no flavor of its own In this case, I recommend peanut oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil These are the oils I would recommend when a recipe calls for simply "oil."

stores that regularly sell butter for anywhere from $2.25 a pound to $4.59 a pound Big difference, and worth going out of my way for

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil makes an excellent substitute for hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Crisco and the like), which you should shun You may find coconut oil at health food stores, in Asian markets, and in the international food aisle of many big gro-cery stores-my grocery store carries it in the "ethnic foods" section, with Indian foods My health food store keeps coconut oil with the cosmetics-they're still convinced that saturated fats are terrible for you, so they don't put it with the foods, but some folks use it for making hair dressings and soaps Coconut oil is solid at room temperature-except in the summer-but melts at body tempera-ture Be aware that for baking recipes, it is essential that your coconut oil be in its solid state-if it's melted when you add it to the recipe, the texture of your fin-ished product will be way the heck off Surprisingly, coconut oil has no coconut flavor or aroma; you can use it for sauteing or in baking without adding any "off"

flavor to your recipes

dress-For sauteing and other general use, I use a grade of olive oil known as

"pomace." Pomace is far cheaper than extra-virgin olive oil, and has a milder vor I buy pomace in gallon cans at the same Middle Eastern grocery store where

fla-I buy my low-carb specialty products These gallon cans are worth looking for; it's the cheapest way to buy the stuff If you can't find gallon cans of pomace, feel free

to buy whatever cheaper, milder-flavored type of olive oil is available in your cery

gro-Be aware that if you refrigerate olive oil it will become solid No big deal; it will be fine once it warms up again If you need it quickly, you can run the bottle under warm water or microwave it for a minute or so on low power, if the con-tainer has no metal and will fit in your microwave

Flour Substitutes

As you are no doubt aware, flour is out, for the very most part, in low-carb ing Flour serves a few different purposes in cooking, from making up the bulk of

cook-21

most baked goods, to creating stretchiness in bread dough, to thickening sauces,

to "binding" casseroles In low-carb cooking we use different ingredients for these various purposes Here's a rundown of flour substitutes you'll want to have on hand for low-carb cooking and baking

Brans

Because fiber is a carbohydrate that we neither digest nor absorb, brans of one kind or another are very useful for bulking up (no pun intended!) low-carb baked goods I use different kinds in different recipes You'll want to have at least wheat bran and oat bran on hand; both of these are widely available

Cake-Ability

Cake-ability is a product by Expert Foods designed to improve the baking qualities

of ground nuts and other low-carb flour substitutes It's made of soluble fiber, baking soda, and dried, powdered egg white, and I know of no substitute Cake-ability is used in only one recipe in this book, so whether you need to seek it out will depend on whether you want to make that recipe, but if you do, you can obtain Cake-ability through many of the low-carb online merchants, or "e-tailers." I know that my friends at CarbSmart carry it

Ground Almonds and Almond Meal

Finely ground almonds and almond meal are wonderful for replacing some or all

of the flour in many recipes, especially cakes and cookies Packaged almond meal

is becoming easier to find; the widely distributed Bob's Red Mill brand makes one It's convenient stuff, and you certainly may use it in any of the recipes that call for almond meal

However, I have gone back to making my own almond meal by grinding shelled almonds in my food processor, using the S-blade It takes only a minute or

so to reduce them to the texture of corn meal, after which I store the meal in a tightly lidded container Why do I bother?

something that surprised me; I thought they'd compress a bit Figure that between 2/3 and 3/4 cup of whole almond kernels will become I cup of meal when ground

Guar and Xanthan Gums

These sound just dreadful, don't they? But they're in lots of your favorite processed foods, so how bad can they be? What the heck are they? They're forms

of water-soluble fiber, extracted and purified Guar and xanthan are both flavorless white powders; their value to us is as low-carb thickeners Technically speaking, these are carbs, but they're all fiber Nothing but So don't worry about it

You'll find guar or xanthan used in a lot of these recipes Don't overuse it to get a thicker product! Why? Because in large quantities they make things gummy; the texture is not terribly pleasant But in these tiny quantities, they add oomph to sauces and soups without using flour

Those of you who read 500 Low-Carb Recipes know that I used to recommend putting your guar or xanthan through the blender with part or all of the liquid in the recipe, to avoid lumps You may now happily forget that technique Instead, acquire an extra salt shaker, fill it with guar or xanthan, and put it by the stove When you want to thicken something, simply sprinkle a little of the thickener over the surface while stirring, preferably with a whisk Stop when your sauce, soup, or gravy is a little less thick than you want it to be-it'll thicken a little more on standing

Your health food store may well be able to order guar or xanthan for you-I slightly prefer xanthan, myself-if they don't have them on hand You can also find suppliers online Keep either one in a jar with a tight lid, and it will never go bad-I bought a pound of guar about fifteen years ago and it's still going strong!

Some of my readers' recipes call for a product called ThickenThin Not Starch, from Expert Foods ThickenThin is a blend of various soluble fibers and can be used interchangeably with guar or xanthan ThickenThin is also available through online low-carb stores

Oat Flour

One or two recipes in this book call for oat flour Because of its high fiber content, oat flour has a lower usable carb count than most other flours; even so, it must be used in very small quantities Oat flour is available at health food stores In a pinch, you can grind up oatmeal in your blender or food processor

23

Pumpkin Seed Meal

A few recipes in this book call for pumpkin seed meal-I started experimenting with it after getting a fair amount of e-mail from folks who couldn't make my baked goods because of an allergy to nuts, and I've found it works quite well (If you're allergic to nuts and want to make any of my recipes that call for almond meal, I'd try substituting pumpkin seed or sunflower seed meal.)

It's very easy to make pumpkin seed meal Just buy raw shelled pumpkin seeds at your health food store (or, for that matter, at any market that caters to a Mexican-American population)-sometimes they'll be labeled "pepitas." Then put your pumpkin seeds in your food processor and grind them with the S-blade until they reach a cornmeal consistency That's all

(Do not try this with the salted pumpkin seeds in the shell that are sold as snacks! You'll get salty food with a texture like wood pulp.)

By the way, when I first published my recipe for Zucchini Bread, which calls for pumpkin seed meal, a few Lowcarbezine! readers wrote to tell me that their bread was tasty, but that it had come out green I assume this is because of the green color of the seeds I haven't had this problem, but it's harmless

Rice Protein Powder

For use in savory recipes-entrees and such-you need protein powder that isn't sweet, and preferably one that has no flavor at all There are a number of these on the market, and some are blander than others I've tried several kinds, and I've found that rice protein powder is the one I like best I buy Nutribiotic brand, which has I gram of carbohydrate per tablespoon, but any unflavored rice protein powder with a similar carb count should work fine Your health food store should

be able to order Nutribiotic Rice Protein for you For that matter, I see no reason not to experiment with other unflavored protein powders, if you like

Rolled Oats

Also known as old-fashioned oatmeal-you know, oat grains that have been

Moreover, none of my recipes call for soy flour; I prefer not to use a lot of soy (see the "Black Soy Beans" section earlier for an explanation of why) But some of the contributed recipes do call for soy flour, which is made from whole raw soy beans, ground fine You should be able to find soy flour at any health food store

It is not the same thing as soy protein powder or soy protein isolate

Wheat Gluten

Gluten is a grain protein; it is the gluten in flour that makes bread dough stretchy

so that it will trap the gas released by the yeast, letting your bread rise We are not,

of course, going to use regular, all-purpose flour, with its high carbohydrate content! Fortunately, it is possible to buy concentrated wheat gluten This high-protein, low-starch flour is absolutely essential to making low-carbohydrate yeast breads

Buying wheat gluten can be a problem, however, because the nomenclature is not standardized Some packagers call this "vital wheat gluten" or "pure gluten flour," others simply "wheat gluten." Still others call it "high gluten flour"-this

is a real poser, since the same name is frequently used for regular flour that has had extra gluten added to it, something you definitely do not want

You'll simply have to read the label The product you want, regardless of what the packager calls it, will have between 75 percent and 80 percent protein-about

24 grams in '/4 cup It will also have a very low carbohydrate count, somewhere

in the neighborhood of 6 grams of carbohydrate in that same '/4 cup If your health food store has a bulk bin labeled "high gluten flour" or "gluten flour" with

no nutrition label attached, ask to see the bulk manager, and request the mation off of the sack the flour came in (If the label on the bin says "vital wheat gluten" or "pure gluten flour," you can probably trust it.)

infor-At this writing the most widely distributed brand of vital wheat gluten in the United States is Bob's Red Mill More and more grocery stores are beginning to carry this line of products If your grocery store doesn't yet, you might request that they get them in

Wheat Germ

The germ is the part of the wheat kernel that would have become the plant if the grain had sprouted It is the most nutritious, highest-protein part of the wheat ker-nel, and is much lower in carbohydrate than the starchy part that becomes white flour A few recipes in this book call for wheat germ, and raw wheat germ, avail-able at health food stores, is what I use Raw wheat germ should be refrigerated,

as it goes rancid pretty easily

If you can't get raw wheat germ, toasted wheat germ, such as Kretschmer's, is

a usable second best and is widely available in grocery stores

2S

Wheat Protein Isolate

A few of these recipes, particularly some of the baked goods, call for wheat tein isolate This is just what it sounds like-it's a protein powder made from wheat, instead of from, say, soybeans It has a high gluten content but also contains other proteins found in wheat Wheat protein isolate has very little flavor and very little carbohydrate-just 1.5 grams per cup

pro-Wheat protein isolate is not widely distributed yet, but it is available through

a few online sources In particular, http://www.locarber.com and smart.com both carry it

http://www.carb-Whey Protein Powder

Whey is the liquid part of milk-if you've ever seen yogurt that has separated, the clearish liquid is the whey Whey protein is of extremely good quality, and the pro-tein powder made from it is tops in both flavor and nutritional value For use in any sweet recipe, the vanilla-flavored whey protein powder-readily available in health food stores-is best Yes, the kind generally sold for making shakes with Protein powders vary some in their carbohydrate counts, so find the one with the least car-bohydrate! And beware of sugar-sweetened protein powders-the one I use is ste-via sweetened and has a little under a gram of carbohydrate per tablespoon

Natural whey protein powder is just like vanilla whey protein powder, except that it has not been flavored or sweetened It is bland in flavor, and is used in recipes where a sweet flavor is not desirable Natural whey protein powder is called for in some of the recipes that other folks have donated to this book-I gen-erally use rice protein powder when a bland protein powder is called for

Ketatoes

Ketatoes is a low-carb version of instant mashed potatoes It actually contains some dehydrated potato, diluted with a lot of fiber You simply mix the powder with equal amounts of water

Or not Personally, I find Ketatoes made according to package directions

Liquids

Beer

One or two recipes in this book call for beer The lowest-carbohydrate beer on the market is Michelob Ultra, but I don't much like the stuff Still, it should be okay for cooking Miller Lite and Milwaukee's Best Light are better, for my money, and only about 0.5 grams more carb per can

Broths

Canned or boxed chicken broth and beef broth are very handy items to keep around, and certainly quicker than making your own However, the quality of most of the canned broth you'll find at your local grocery store is appalling The chicken broth has all sorts of chemicals in it, and often sugar as well The "beef" broth is worse-it frequently has no beef in it whatsoever I refuse to use these products, and you should, too

However, there are a few canned or boxed broths on the market worth buying Many grocery stores now carry a brand called Kitchen Basics, which contains no chemicals at all It is packaged in quart-sized boxes, much like soy milk Kitchen Basics comes in both chicken and beef Health food stores also have good-quality canned and boxed broths-both Shelton and Health Valley brands are widely dis-tributed in the United States

Decent packaged broth will cost you a little more than the stuff that is made

of salt and chemicals, but not a whole lot more If you watch for sales, you can often get it as cheaply as the bad stuff, and stock up-when my health food store runs a sale of good broth for eighty-nine cents a can, I buy piles of the stuff!

One last note-you will also find canned vegetable broth, particularly at health food stores This is tasty but runs much higher in carbohydrate than the chicken and beef broths do I'd avoid it

Carb Countdown Dairy Beverage

A very useful addition to low-carb cuisine is this carbohydrate-reduced milk uct, available in full-fat, 1 %, and skim, not to mention an exceedingly yummy chocolate variety To me, Carb Countdown tastes just like milk, and I've used it pretty extensively in these recipes

prod-I checked with the manufacturer, and Carb Countdown is nationally uted, so you should be able to find it near you However, if you cannot, try substi-tuting half-and-half or equal parts of heavy cream and water For that matter, if you're on the South Beach Diet, low-fat milk is allowed; feel free to use it in place

distrib-of Carb Countdown wherever I've specified it

27

Vinegar

Various recipes in this book call for wine vinegar, cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, rice vinegar, tarragon vinegar, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and even raspberry vinegar, for which you'll find a recipe If you've always thought that vinegar was just vinegar, think again! Each of these vinegars has a distinct flavor all its own, and if you substitute one for the other, you'll change the whole character of the recipe-one splash of cider vinegar in your Asian Chicken Salad (page 383), and you've traded your Chinese accent for an American twang Vinegar is such a great way to give bright flavors to foods while adding few carbs that I keep all of these varieties

on hand-it's not like they go bad or anything

As with everything else, read the labels on your vinegar I've seen cider gar that has 0 grams of carbohydrate per ounce, and I've seen cider vinegar that has 4 grams of carbohydrate per ounce-that's a huge difference! Beware, also, of apple cider flavored vinegar-white vinegar with artificial flavors added I bought this once by mistake, so I thought I'd give you the heads-up (You'd think the Label Reading Police would be beyond such errors, wouldn't you?)

vine-Wine

There are several recipes in this cookbook calling for either dry red or dry white wine I find the inexpensive wines that come in a Mylar bag inside a cardboard box to be very convenient to keep on hand for cooking, for the simple reason that they do not go bad, because the contents are never exposed to air These are not fabulous vintage wines, but they're fine for our modest purposes, and they cer-tainly are handy I generally have both Burgundy and Chablis wine-in-a-box on hand Be wary of any wine with "added flavors"-too often, one of those flavors will be sugar Buy wine with a recognizable name-Burgundy, Rhine, Chablis, Cabernet, and the like, rather than stuff like "Chillable Red."

Nuts, Seeds, and Nut Butters

that the fats in flax seed are very stable so long as the seeds are whole, but go cid pretty quickly after the seed coat is broken

ran-In 500 Low-Carb Recipes I recommended grinding flax seed in your food processor I have since heard from a few people that a far better tool is an electric coffee grinder, though you'll want to use one you don't use for coffee, or, at the very least, clean it meticulously of coffee residue!

Nut Butters

The only peanut butter called for in this cookbook is "natural" peanut butter, the kind made from ground-up roasted peanuts, peanut oil, salt, and nothing else Most big grocery stores now carry natural peanut butter; it's the stuff with a layer

of oil on top The oil in standard peanut butter has been hydrogenated to keep

it from separating out-that's what gives Skippy and Jif that extremely smooth, plastic consistency-and it's hard to think of anything worse for you than hydrogenated vegetable oil Except for sugar, of course, which is also added to standard peanut butter Stick to the natural stuff

There is now a low-carb version of Skippy peanut butter on the market, under the Carb Options label It has hydrogenated vegetable oil in it, and I won't touch it

Health food stores carry not only natural peanut butter, but almond butter, sunflower butter, and sesame butter, generally called tahini All of these are useful for low carbers

Keep all natural nut butters in the refrigerator unless you're going to eat them

up within a week or two

Nuts and Seeds

Low in carbohydrates and high in healthy fats, protein, and minerals, nuts and seeds are great foods for us Not only are they delicious for snacking and for adding crunch to salads and stir-fries, but when ground, they can replace some of the flour in low-carb baked goods-in particular, you'll find quite a few recipes in this book calling for ground hazelnuts, ground almonds, and ground sunflower seeds Since these ingredients can be pricey, you'll want to shop around In par-ticular, health food stores often carry nuts and seeds in bulk at better prices than you'll find at the grocery store I have also found that specialty ethnic groceries often have good prices on nuts; I get my best deal on almonds at my wonderful Middle Eastern grocery, Sahara Mart

Along with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, you can buy sesame seeds in bulk

at health food stores, for a fraction of what they'll cost you in a little shaker jar at the grocery store Buy them "unhulled" and you'll get more fiber and calcium You can also get unsweetened shredded coconut at health food stores

29

Seasonings

Bouillon or Broth Concentrates

Bouillon or broth concentrate comes in cubes, crystals, and liquids It is generally full of salt and chemicals and doesn't taste notably like the animal it supposedly came from It definitely does not make a suitable substitute for good-quality broth

if you're making a pot of soup However, these products can be useful for adding a little kick of flavor here and there-more as seasonings than as soups-and for this use, I keep them on hand I previously have written that I used chicken bouillon granules but liquid beef bouillon concentrate I now use a paste bouillon concen-trate product called Better Than Bouillon, which comes in both chicken and beef flavors; I do find it preferable to the other kinds But, hey, use what you have on hand; it should be okay

Chili Garlic Paste

This is a traditional Asian ingredient, consisting mostly, as the name strongly implies, of hot chilies and garlic If, like me, you're a chili-head, you'll find end-less ways to used the stuff once you have it on hand Chili garlic paste comes in jars and keeps for months in the refrigerator Worth seeking out at Asian markets

or in the international foods aisle of big grocery stores

Fish Sauce or Nuoc Mam

This is a salty, fermented seasoning widely used in Southeast Asian cooking, able in Asian grocery stores and in the Asian food section of big grocery stores Grab it when you find it; it keeps nicely without refrigeration Fish sauce is used

avail-in a few (really great) recipes avail-in this book, and adds an authentic flavor In a pavail-inch, you can substitute soy sauce, although you'll lose some of your Southeast Asian accent

Garlic

chopped garlic in oil doesn't taste like fresh garlic We won't even talk about garlic powder You may use jarred garlic if you like-half a teaspoon should equal about

I clove of fresh garlic If you choose to use powdered garlic, well, I can't stop you, but I'm afraid I can't promise the recipes will taste the same, either One quarter teaspoon of garlic powder is the rough equivalent of' clove of fresh garlic

By the way, the easiest way to crush a clove or two of garlic is to put the flat side of a big knife on top of it and smash it with your fist Pick out the papery skin, which will now be easy to do, chop your garlic a bit more, and toss it into your dish Oh, and keep in mind that the distinctive garlic aroma and flavor only devel-ops after the cell walls are broken-that's why a pile of fresh garlic bulbs in the grocery store doesn't reek-so the more finely you crush or mince your garlic, the more flavor it will release

Ground fresh gingerroot in oil is available in jars at some very comprehensive grocery stores I buy this when I can find it without added sugar, but otherwise, I grate my own

Vege-Sal

If you've read my newsletter, Lowcarbezine! or my previous cookbooks, you know that I'm a big fan ofVege-Sal What is Vege-Sal? It's a salt that's been seasoned, but don't think "seasoned salt." Vege-Sal is much milder than traditional seasoned salt It's simply salt that's been blended with some dried, powdered vegetables; the flavor is quite subtle, but I think it improves all sorts of things I've given you the choice between using regular salt or Vege-Sal in a wide variety of recipes Don't

31

worry, they'll come out fine with plain old salt, but I do think Vege-Sal adds a tle something extra Vege-Sal is also excellent sprinkled over chops and steaks in place of regular salt Vege-Sal is made by Modern Products, and is widely available

lit-in health food stores

Sweeteners

Blackstrap Molasses

What the heck is molasses doing in a low-carb cookbook?! It's practically all bohydrate, after all Well, yes, but I've found that combining Splenda with a very small amount of molasses gives a good brown sugar flavor to all sorts of recipes Always use the darkest molasses you can find-the darker it is, the stronger the flavor and the lower the carb count That's why I specify blackstrap, the darkest, strongest molasses there is It's nice to know that blacks trap is also where all the minerals they take out of sugar end up-it may be carb-y, but at least it's not a nutritional wasteland Still, I use only small amounts

car-If you can't get blackstrap molasses-most health food stores carry it-buy the darkest molasses you can find Most "grocery store" brands come in both light and dark varieties

Why not use some of the artificial brown sugar-flavored sweeteners out there? Because I've tried them, and I haven't tasted a one I would be willing to buy again Ide

Polyols

Polyols, also known as sugar alcohols, are widely used in sugar-free candies and cookies There are a variety of polyols, and their names all end with "tol": sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, lactitol, xylitol, and the like (Okay, there's one exception: iso-malt I don't know what happened there.) Polyols are, indeed, carbohydrates, but they are carbohydrates that are made up of molecules that are too big for the human gut to digest or absorb easily As a result, polyols don't create much rise in

Why do manufacturers use polyols instead of sucralose (Splenda)? Polyols are used in commercial sugar-free sweets because, unlike Splenda and other artificial sweeteners, they will give all of the textures that can be achieved with sugar Polyols can be used to make crunchy toffee, chewy jelly beans, slick hard candies, moist brownies, and creamy chocolate, just as sugar can

However, there are one or two problems with polyols First of all, there is some feeling that different people have differing abilities to digest and absorb these very long chain carbohydrates, which means that for some people, they may cause more of a derangement of blood sugar than for others Once again, my only advice is to pay attention to your body

The other problem with polyols is one that is inherent in all indigestible, unabsorbable carbohydrates: they can cause gas and diarrhea Unabsorbed carbs ferment in your gut, you see, with intestinal gas as a result; it's the exact same thing as happens when people eat beans I find that even half of a low-carb choco-late bar is enough to cause me social embarrassment several hours later And

I know of a case where eating a dozen and a half sugar-free taffies before bed caused the hapless consumer forty-five minutes of serious gut-cramping intes-tinal distress at four in the morning

Don't think, by the way, that you can get around these effects of polyol consumption by taking Beano It will work, but it will work by making the carbo-hydrates digestible and absorbable-meaning that any low-carb advantage is gone I've known folks who have gained weight this way

What we have here, then, is a sweetener that enforces moderation Personally,

I think this is a wonderful thing!

Since I wrote 500 Low-Carb Recipes, polyols have become available for the home cook I have started to use them in my recipes, because they do, indeed, offer a tex-tural advantage In particular, I got a fair number of complaints about the cookie recipes in 500 Low-Carb Recipes-people liked the flavor of the cookies but found them too crumbly and sometimes too dry Polyols solve this problem

However, I have become increasingly wary of using polyols in any great tity, because I am convinced we absorb more carbohydrate from them than the food processors want to let on So here's what I do: When I feel that adding polyol sweetener to a recipe will improve the texture, I use just enough of the sweetener to get the effect I want, and then add Splenda to bring the recipe up to the level of sweetness I'm looking for This has worked very well for me It also makes the resulting food easier on both your gut and your blood sugar than it would be if I'd used all polyol

quan-I use erythritol whenever possible, in preference to maltitol, isomalt, or any of the other granular polyols Why? Because erythritol has the lowest digestion and absorption rate of all the polyols-you get only 0.3 calories per gram of erythritol,

33

which tells us that we're absorbing very little indeed Erythritol also seems to be easier on the gut than the other polyols See Appendix B for mail-order sources of erythritol

There are, however, recipes where I use other polyols I use sugar-free dark chocolate not infrequently (and if you haven't tried the sugar-free chocolate yet, you're missing something!) I also use sugar-free pancake syrup and the new sugar-free imitation honey Obviously, with these products, I'm stuck with whichever polyol the manufacturer used

I also have found one application in which I can get only maltitol to work: Chocolate sauce I have tried repeatedly to make a decent no-sugar-added choco-late sauce with erythritol, and it simply isn't happening The stuff starts out look-ing all right, but as soon as it cools, it turns grainy on me Maltitol makes a perfectly textured chocolate sauce So for that purpose alone, I keep a little malti-tol in my pantry

I confess, I am at a loss as to how to count the carbohydrate grams that ols add to my recipes, since I can't know which of the polyol sweeteners you'll be using, and they do, indeed, have differing absorption rates Therefore, I have left them out of the nutritional analyses in this cookbook, which puts me on the same footing as the food processors, I guess I have mentioned this in the recipe analy-ses Be aware that you're probably getting at least a few grams of extra carb per serving in these recipes

poly-Splenda

If you haven't tried Splenda yet, what are you waiting for? Feed nondieting friends and family Splenda-sweetened desserts and they will never know that you didn't use sugar It tastes that good

Splenda has some other advantages The table sweetener has been bulked so that it measures (in volume, not weight) spoon for spoon, cup for cup like sugar This makes adapting recipes much easier Also, Splenda stands up to heat, unlike aspartame, which means you can use it for baked goods and other things that are heated for a while

count half a gram per teaspoon, 1 '/2 grams per tablespoon, and 24 grams per cup The stuff in the packets, since it's bulked less, has fewer carbs, so if you want

to do the conversion, you can save a few grams Me, I'd go buggy tearing open all those little packets

Stevia/FOS Blend

Stevia is short for Stevia rebaudiana, a South American shrub with very sweet leaves Stevia extract, a white powder from stevia leaves, is growing in popularity with people who don't care to eat sugar, but are nervous about artificial sweeten-ers

However, stevia extract has a couple of faults-one, it's so extremely sweet that it's hard to know just how much to use in any given recipe, and two, it often has a bitter taste as well as a sweet one This is why some smart food packagers have started blending stevia with fructooligosaccharide, also known as FOS FOS

is a sugar, but it's a sugar with a molecule so large that the human gut can neither digest nor absorb it, so it doesn't raise blood sugar or cause an insulin release FOS has a nice, mild sweetness to it-indeed, it's only half as sweet as table sugar This makes it the perfect partner for the too-sweet stevia

This steviajFOS blend is called for in just a few recipes in this book It is able in many health food stores, both in packets and in shaker jars The brand I use is called SteviaPlus, from a company called Sweet Leaf, but any steviajFOS blend should do for the recipes that call for it

avail-My favorite use for this steviajFOS blend, by the way, is to sweeten my yogurt

I think it tastes quite good in yogurt, and FOS actually helps the good bacteria take hold in your gut, improving your health

Sugar-Free Imitation Honey

This is one of those "I knew low carb had really hit the mainstream when " products I knew we were mainstream when my grocery store started carrying sugar-free imitation honey! This is a polyol syrup with flavoring added to make it taste like honey, and the two I've tried, one by Honey Tree and the other by Steele's, are not bad imitations

Sugar-free imitation honey is becoming more and more available, and a fullittle product it is-in baked goods it adds some extra moisture, while in things like barbecue sauces it adds the familiar syrupy quality I can get sugar-free imi-tation honey here in Bloomington at my local Marsh grocery store, and I've heard that Wal-Mart now carries a brand For that matter, many of the low-carb e-tailers carry Steele's brand of imitation honey In short, it shouldn't be too hard to get your hands on some

use-3S

Remember that sugar-free imitation honey is pretty much pure polyol Slather

it on your low-carb pancakes or biscuits with too free a hand, and you'll pay the price in gastric distress

Sugar-Free Pancake Syrup

This is actually easy to find; all my local grocery stores carry it-indeed, they have more than one brand It's usually with the regular pancake syrup, but may be lurking with the diabetic or diet foods It's just like regular pancake syrup, only it's made from polyols instead of sugar I use it in small quantities in a few recipes

to get a maple flavor

Vegetables

Avocados

Several recipes in this book call for avocados Be aware that the little, black, skinned California avocados are lower in carbohydrate (and higher in healthy monounsaturated fat) than the big green Florida avocados All nutritional analy-ses were done assuming you used California avocados

rough-Carrots

Because carrots have a higher glycemic index than many vegetables, a lot of low carbers have started avoiding them with great zeal But while carrots do have a fairly high blood-sugar impact, you'd have to eat pounds of them to get the quan-tity that is used to test with So don't freak when you see a carrot used here and there in these recipes, okay? I've kept the quantities small, just enough to add flavor, color, and a few vitamins, not enough to torpedo your diet

Frozen Vegetables

You'll notice that many of these recipes call for frozen vegetables, particularly

Onions

Onions are a borderline vegetable; they're certainly higher in carbohydrate than, say, lettuce or cucumbers However, they're loaded with valuable phytochemicals,

so they're very healthful, and, of course, they add an unmatched flavor to all sorts

of foods Therefore I use onions a lot, but I try to use the least quantity that will give the desired flavor Indeed, one of the most common things I do to cut carb counts on "borrowed" recipes is to cut back on the amount of onion used If you have serious diabetes, you'll want to watch your quantities of onions pretty care-fully, and maybe even cut back further on the amounts I've given

If you're not an accomplished cook, you need to know that different types of onions are good for different things There are mild onions, which are best used raw, and there are stronger onions, which are what you want if you're going to be cooking them My favorite mild onions are sweet red onions; these are widely available, and you'll see I've used them quite a lot in the recipes However, if you prefer, you can substitute Vidalia onions or Bermuda onions anywhere I've spec-ified sweet red onions Scallions, also known as green onions, also are mild and best eaten raw or quickly cooked in stir-fries To me, scallions have their own fla-vor, and I generally don't substitute for them, but your kitchen won't blow up or anything if you use another sort of sweet onion in their place

When a recipe simply says "onion," what I'm talking about is good old yellow globe onions, the ones you can buy three or five pounds at a time in net sacks You'll be doing yourself a favor if you pick a sack with smallish onions in it-that way, when a recipe calls for just a quarter or a half a cup of chopped onion, you're unlikely to be left with half an onion on your hands For the record, when I say simply "a small onion," I mean one about 1 '/2" (3.75 cm) in diameter, or about

'/4-'/3 cup when chopped A medium onion would be about 2" (5 cm) in eter, and would yield between '/2 and 3j 4 cup when chopped A large onion would

diam-be 2 '/2"-3" (6.25-7.5 cm) across, and will yield about a cup when chopped

Tomatoes and Tomato Products

Tomatoes are another borderline vegetable, but like onions they are so nutritious,

so flavorful, and so versatile that I'm reluctant to leave them out of low-carb sine entirely After all, lycopene, the pigment that makes tomatoes red, has been shown to be a potent cancer fighter-who wants to miss something like that? You'll notice that I call for canned tomatoes in a fair number of recipes, even some where fresh tomatoes might do This is because fresh tomatoes aren't very good for much of the year, while canned tomatoes are all canned at the height of ripeness I'd rather have a good canned tomato in my sauce or soup than a

cui-37

mediocre fresh one Since canned tomatoes are generally used with all the liquid that's in the can, the nutritional content doesn't suffer the way it does with most canned vegetables

I also use plain canned tomato sauce, canned pizza sauce, canned pasta sauce, and jarred salsa When choosing these products, you need to be aware that toma-toes, for some reason, inspire food packers to flights of sugar-fancy They add sugar, corn syrup, and other carb-y sweeteners to all sorts of tomato products So

find the ones with no added sugar And keep on reading them! The good, cheap brand of salsa I used for quite a while showed up one day with "New, Improved!"

on the label Guess how they'd improved it? Right They'd added sugar I found a new brand!

A small note on ketchup: Commercially-made low-carb ketchup is now able and is often lower carb than my version All recipes containing ketchup in

The best place to buy yeast is at a good health food store, where yeast is generally available in bulk for a fraction of what it would cost you in little pack-ets at the grocery store Yeast should be stored in the cooler at the health food store, and you should put it in the refrigerator at home

One last note: don't buy more yeast than you're likely to use up in, oh, four

won't rise When you're using expensive ingredients, like we do, this is almost

If you look at the label of either of these cultured milk products, you'll see that the nutrition label claims 12 grams of carbohydrate per cup (and, by the way, 8 grams of protein)-the same carbohydrate count as the milk they're made from For this reason, many low carbers avoid yogurt and buttermilk

However, in The GO-Diet, Drs Goldberg and O'Mara explain that, in

actuali-ty, most of the lactose-milk sugar-in the milk is converted into lactic acid by the bacteria This is what gives these foods their sour taste The labels say "12 grams carbohydrate" largely, they say, because carbohydrate count is determined by "dif-ference." What this means is that the calorie count is first determined Then the protein and fat fractions are measured, and the number of calories they contribute

is calculated Any calories left over are assumed to come from carbohydrate

However, Goldberg and O'Mara say, this is inaccurate in the case of yogurt and buttermilk-they say we should count just 4 grams of carbohydrate a cup for these cultured milks Accordingly, I have added them back to my diet, and I have had no trouble-no weight gain and no triggering of "blood-sugar hunger." I really enjoy yogurt as a snack!

Keep in mind that these numbers only apply to plain yogurt The sweetened kind is always higher in carbohydrate If you like fruit-flavored yogurt, flavor it yourself You'll find a recipe for making your own plain yogurt, easy as mud pies,

in chapter 3, but any plain yogurt is fine

The carb counts in this book are calculated using that 4 grams of drate per cup figure

carbohy-Miscellaneous Products

As you may have noticed, there are tons oflow-carb versions of traditionally carb foods now on the market Two that I frequently use that are certainly worth mentioning are low-carb tortillas and unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut

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